10 Awesome Video Games You Can't Play Anymore

2. Black & White 1 & 2

black and white
Lionhead

Black & White was one of the most acclaimed video games of the 2000s - a mesmerising god game in which the player controls a deity overseeing a number of islands and the tribes therein.

Black & White's big hook was that the player's moral actions - basically, how much of a bastard they wanted to be when training their gigantic pet minion - would have a dramatic impact on the narrative's outcome.

Even though some felt that the game didn't quite reach the heights promised by famous under-deliverer Peter Molyneux, its general esteem remains high. 2005's sequel never nailed the same zeitgeist appeal, but was still well-received overall.

And yet, despite Black & White being one of the quintessential water cooler games of the early 2000s, both it and its sequel have never received a digital release, and remain (legally) unavailable to anyone who doesn't own the original PC discs.

And beyond that, getting them working on modern PC architecture is pretty tricky.

Even with developer Lionhead Studios going bust in 2016, publisher EA presumably still holds the rights to Black & White and could conceivably re-release both games, and yet just... hasn't. It's maddening.

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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.